Care for Water - Care for Women

Initially, we used a two-way approach in our community agenda, by identifying locale and need and from this, working on individual projects to sustain the community. This revealed the need for a more focused effort involving our associates. A dire and widespread need amongst them for clean water and sanitation was identified, which resulted in our adopting these two issues as a priority sustainability platform.

For some of our associates living close to our plants, water was not easily accessible and obtaining clean potable water was imperative. Thus began projects of diverse scales being embarked upon and a target of completing 500 new projects by the end of this year.

As projects were completed, we saw how accessibility to water benefitted the entire community. The construction of a tube well, water storage tank or an entire water supply system improved the lives of the entire village. It also gave our people a sense of pride to work for an organisation that cared not only for them but for their whole community.

The Brandix CSR Centre has been the engine for these initiatives, directed by the SBU HR units and welfare teams and have spanned micro to macro water projects. Over the past three years they have included establishing desalination plants along the coastal belt, an initiative that was most beneficial post-tsunami, tube wells and water storage tanks and our largest investment, the Brandix Water Resources Board Centre for Water Conservation and Management in Anuradhapura.

To reinforce that water is life, internal and external awareness campaigns have been run to focus on saving water and related issues. However, in addition to water and sanitation projects, we have also assisted deserving projects including focusing on children as victims of war.

Community Water Projects

Prominent community water initiatives that Brandix has undertaken include an internal water supply for 30 tsunami affected families in Imalduwa.

'Fashion Statement 2006' raised funds to provide safe drinking water to a village in Lunugamwehera. Many smaller projects have been implemented at various other villages and schools too.

Brandix has collaborated with several other organisations on much larger projects. The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) partnered Brandix for two projects in Kattankudi in the Eastern Province and Lunawa in the Western province. Another major undertaking was the the Water Resources Research and Training Centre in Anuradhapura, with Gap Inc, run by the Water Resources Board, to educate students, teachers, community workers and the general public on water conservation and management.